


I'll Mourn for a Kid, but Won't Cry for a King

by jupiterscallisto



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, Ghost doesn't refer to themselves with a name all that much, Hornet is a bamf, Hornet is indeed a spider, I'm not sure where I'm going with this story, Post-Dream No More Ending (Hollow Knight), Sibling Bonding, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, The Pale King is a Bad Parent (Hollow Knight), They/Them Pronouns for The Vessels (Hollow Knight), This will mainly be from Ghost's pov, Why does everyone forget Ghost has two Shades?, no beta we die like all of the children in the abyss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiterscallisto/pseuds/jupiterscallisto
Summary: Set after the Dream No More ending.Most if not everyone lives, and the Radiance is now gone. The knight and their siblings, Hornet and the ex-Pure Vessel, decide to leave their Kingdom for now and try to live a little. Grimmchild tags along, because why not?
Relationships: Grimmchild & The Knight (Hollow Knight), Hornet & The Knight (Hollow Knight), The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet & The Knight, The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & The Knight, The Knight & Siblings (Hollow Knight)
Kudos: 29





	I'll Mourn for a Kid, but Won't Cry for a King

Darkness swarms their vision, and they have trouble feeling their limbs. They feel as though they’re falling, but they’re not quite sure. Memories begin to seep into their mind as their body continues to feel disoriented, and a small gray light begins to appear when they try to open their eyes.

One of their earliest memories appears, and it's seeing the void within the abyss. They are standing along with their siblings watching the others continue to hatch as they all just stand there motionless. The ground is cold, as is everything in the abyss, but it feels normal to them. They forgot what the ground of the abyss floor felt like before it was buried under the empty shells of their sibling’s corpses.

They view the tall silver walls that keep them from leaving the abyss and the constructs above them when they look up. As their siblings begin to look around, the first thing they notice besides their immense amount of siblings is the large pool of void. They feel a natural pull to the void that grows stronger the closer they are to it as they start their walk over there, ignoring the freshly built lighthouse with the light not yet on.

It slashes about when they are just at the edge of the pool and is so close to grabbing them with a tendril, until a sibling that they didn’t bother to notice pulls them from behind, quick enough so that the tendril misses. The sibling looks at them, then shifts their sight to the lighthouse, then to the void-pool.

_'Do not go near the void lake, sibling. It will hurt you, then take you.'_

They hear their sibling’s thoughts echo in their own head.

_'Alright. I understand.'_

They echo their thoughts back to their sibling. This sibling, with horns that had two prongs, somewhat like their own that were forked at the end, was the one that would one day be known as the Pure Vessel. It was weird to think about when looking back at this memory. The one who had once saved them, they now had returned the favor to.

Suddenly they had stopped falling. The glimpse of the memory finally stopped, as when they finally opened their eyes, for real this time, they saw that they were in their birthplace, the abyss in which they had just had a memory about. Their sibling’s shades now were all in a large group, simply staring at them waiting for them to finally wake up. They had no idea how they had gotten here, but quickly noticed that they had only one of their shades within themself.

The siblings continued to just stare at them. When they eventually began to stand up a few of the siblings had tried to help them, their void tendrils no longer causing harm as they did before. As they stood up, they quickly checked to see if they still had their nail on their back and all their charms, and internally sighed in relief when they saw that they were still fully equipped. Looking up, they had decided that they were ready to see what was of Hallownest after defeating the Goddess(whose name shall never be spoken ever again.) They looked around at their siblings, and bowed to them all, not knowing any other way to show their appreciation. Some siblings bowed back, while others came closer and gave them what they could assume to be a hug with void tendrils, and others even came close to their face and playfully bonked their mask together. If Ghost could smile, they would. 

After their goodbyes with their siblings, they began to climb their way up, dashing with their moth cloak and flying short amounts with their wings. Some time after, they had finally reached the top and took no time to rest as they eagerly began their way to the Stagway station, sparring one quick glance downwards to the abyss as they left their birthplace.

\---

A blazing yellow mixed with bright orange and an intense flash of white rushed through their mind. The last thing they remembered hearing were Her raging screams dying out as the void slowly but surely consumed her whole.

“You failed...but succeeded in ways that weren’t expected, Vessel.”

They lied softly on the ground of the Black Egg now, their chains that were once holding them now weak and useless. Their mask was cracked on its left side right by their eye, and their vision was blurry. They heard a faint song, a lullabye they once would call, in front of them, and felt the void in them stir in unease. They looked up, vision still a bit blurred, and saw a shade. Their sibling’s shade, the vessel that had taken Her with their void. It hummed an eerie lullaby as it carefully looked at them, then turned their back and continued to simply float. It looked as though it was waiting, but for what? If their sibling was now a shade, that must have meant that their masks had shattered and that they had died when pulling Her down to the abyss. A deep sense of grief settled within them, but they tried to ignore it.

They attempted to get up but found that their body lacked the energy to do so. Still stubborn, they grabbed their nail that they thankfully still had, and used it as a sort of walking stick, dragging themselves upwards. They heard a quick scuttle in front of them that couldn’t have possibly been made by the shade, and looked around. A bug appeared, or rather a spider, and they quickly went into a fighting stance, mustering up any liveliness they still had. They realized quickly though that it wasn’t just any spider, but one who they shared blood with.

‘Hornet...How you’ve grown-’ they thought to themself before they were interrupted by her needle being unsheathed and her silk being pulled out, as though getting ready for a fight.

“Sibling,” She said, eyeing them carefully, “You have been freed from the Old Light. You have no further purpose that is needed from you.”

They continued with their stance as she spoke, and they listened thoroughly to each would she had said. She was right. After their smaller sibling had defeated Her with the help of the void, there was nothing left for them to do. They were no longer the Pure Vessel, never truly had been, and had already been used for what they were intended to do. They were given everything they were needed to fulfill their duty, and still failed miserably. Now they truly had no motivation.

“Yet still…” Hornet continued speaking after her brief pause, “Your worth should have never been determined by what you were able to give to our father, if you could even call him that, and Hallownest. It is obvious that you are not what is deemed “hollow,” sibling. I think, personally, that it is never too late to start being who you wish to be.”

As soon as they realized their sister no longer posed a threat they lowered themselves to their knees, their legs and upper body now giving out completely. They were exhausted. Hornet came towards them now, lowering her weapon completely and standing near them, now just a little bit shorter than them.

“So sibling,” She began again, this time looking directly at them, “Will you come with me? I am not the best, but I promise you I will try and help you heal from the trauma that was inflicted upon you. The world isn’t as scary when you have others you can trust by your side. Will you let me be one of them, Hallow?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I don't really know where to go with this story, any advice? Comments are always appreciated.


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